When Jerome Singleton calls this “the golden age of amputee sprinting”, his
very earnestness tells you that it is no wisecrack.

Exploring new boundaries: Jerome Singleton, a Nasa scientist, is looking to beat Oscar Pistorious in the T43/44 100m final and take "amputee sprinting" to a new levelPhoto: JULIAN SIMMONDS FOR THE TELEGRAPH

For this intense and academically-gifted soul from South Carolina, who confronts Oscar Pistorius and Britain’s Jonnie Peacock in the final of the T43/44 100 metres, is poised to become the latest athlete to break the South African poster boy’s heart.

Already Singleton and Pistorius have a history, after the American lunged for the line with such gusto to beat his rival at last year’s world championships in New Zealand that he fell flat on his face on the track.

“I have prepared to peak in London, so I believe this race will be something very special,” he predicts. “I can’t be complacent. I’m being pushed to go deep down inside myself.”

The 26 year-old, whose right leg was amputated below the knee at 18 months after he was born without a fibula, needs little invitation to muster this extra commitment.

For Singleton is a singularity by his sheer dedication, embracing Pistorius’ philosophy that Paralympians should define themselves by ability rather than disability.

His immersion in his scholastic work is such that he has completed two degrees, the first in mathematics and applied physics at Atlanta’s Morehouse College and the second in industrial engineering at the University of Michigan.

Such a background equipped Singleton, also a highly accomplished American football running back, to secure highly-prized placements at Nasa and Cern, the European Organisation for Nuclear Physics in Geneva. His stint as a Nasa intern was, he explains, geared towards developing a “non-oil-dependent engine that could be used in the Mars landing”.

It establishes him, very possibly, as the sole competitor in London this summer with a role in interplanetary exploration. “Athletics and academics have both given me the chance to travel the world,” he says, beaming. “I consider it a double blessing. I felt that I needed to learn more about myself.”

Singleton is unfailingly polite, with the quaint Southern habit of prefacing each answer with “Yes, sir”. It is little wonder he is such a model student, with designs on returning to academia once these Paralympics are over.

In his time at the space agency he also helped refine a stereo imaging project that could scan the eye to detect cataracts, while in Switzerland he joined a research team investigating high-energy particles.

Thoughts of track and field could scarcely have been further from his mind, yet since 2010 he has had to dedicate himself to sport virtually full-time. “People forget that when I first tried out for the US national team in 2006, I got cut. I realised from that moment that if I really wanted to do something, I couldn’t do it half-heartedly. I hadn’t been serious enough in my attitude.”

Singleton has been blinkered in the build-up to London, determined to defend his self-styled billing as “the fastest amputee on the planet”.

It did not quite hold true in last Sunday night’s controversial T43/44 200m final, where Pistorius lost his title to Brazil’s Alan Oliveira and where Singleton — competing in the single-amputee T44 category — trailed in fifth. But 100m remains much his stronger discipline, as illustrated by his display in Beijing 2008, when he won silver behind Pistorius.

“Oscar has taken amputee sprinting to a new level, and I’m thankful for that,” Singleton says. “He is such an example, because he has shown what people with disabilities can do, that if you have a desire to achieve something, whether in athletics or your career, then it’s possible.”

But the opportunity to overhaul Pistorius, after the triple Paralympic champion complained about the length of Oliveira’s running blades in the 200m, is clear. He regards his prosthetic leg only in terms of advantage, remembering that in gridiron defence sessions he never ran the risk of spraining his right ankle or of breaking a bone in his right foot. “I picked up the nickname ‘The Hammer’.”

Beyond London, Singleton has identified a central role in the Paralympic movement as his dream career, harnessing his cerebral inclinations and gift for diplomacy. “The movement is at a tipping point, and I think London has tipped it in the right direction,” he says. “This can be a multi-billion-dollar industry.”